Harry Potter and the Snake of Privet Drive
by HarryPotterScientist
Summary: With the help of a snake, Harry runs away from the Dursleys. Learning about the wizarding world, he and Hermione develop a deep mistrust of Dumbledore. They try to avoid Hogwarts as long as possible but are forced to return after two years abroad. Will they eventually be able to work with Dumbledore to stop Voldemort? Or will their mistrust spell the downfall of Wizarding Britain?
1. The Snake and the Parselmouth

Disclaimer – I do not own Harry Potter nor any of the characters, locations, or any other aspect of the Harry Potter universe; J.K. Rowling does.

Parseltongue will be placed in italics

Chapter 1 – The Snake and the Parselmouth

Sunday September 4, 1988

"Not again," Harry exclaimed as he turned the corner onto Privet Drive, just to find himself face to face with Dudley and his friends Piers, Dennis, Malcolm, and Gordon. They were constantly going "Harry Hunting," and Harry felt fortunate to have only been caught twice that summer. It was the last day before Harry was going to begin his fourth year of primary school, and he was not looking forward to the start of the new semester. During the summer vacation, he could easily hide from Dudley and his friends, but during the school year, everyone knew where his class was and where he would be at nearly any given time.

But he had more pressing concerns. Piers lunged out and barely missed grabbing onto Harry's arms. Harry bolted the other way and turned down one of the side streets. After being chased for a couple of minutes, he reached a nearby park.

I can definitely lose them here, Harry thought to himself, diving into a nearby bush and falling silent to escape his pursuers. He watched as five sets of feet ran by, and he stopped himself from breathing a sigh of relief that could have led to him being found. It would not be the first time that happened: a prior year, Harry had thought he was in the clear after Piers walked past one of his hiding spots, but he had exhaled too loudly and was caught.

A few minutes later, as Harry was about to crawl out of his hiding spot, he noticed a large grass snake, about three feet in length. Unnoticed by the snake, but not by Harry, was a corvid that thought it spotted lunch in the grass. Harry was not exactly sure why he reacted as he did, but he hissed, " _Watch out._ "

The snake looked up and spotted the bird swooping toward it. With the warning it received from Harry, it rolled to the left, away from where the bird was diving. Not expecting the snake to move, the corvid's initial dive missed. As it went to resume its attack, it saw Harry beginning to walk towards the snake to protect it. The bird decided that there would be easier prey to target, and it flew away.

" _Thank you for saving me,_ " hissed the snake.

Harry, confused as to what had just happened, asked the snake. " _Why can I understand what you are saying? And how did you understand what I said? What kind of freaky business is going on?_ "

" _You are a Parselmouth, Speaker. That means you can speak Parseltongue, the language of snakes. You can understand snakes, and snakes can understand you. It is a very rare ability among wizards; I did not expect_ –"

" _Wait! What's this about wizards? My uncle always said that magic is not real and that there is no such thing as witches and wizards."_

 _"Do you really believe your uncle?"_ asked the snake. " _Can you come up with any other explanation for how we can understand each other_?" When Harry remained silent and shook his head, the snake continued, " _By the way, what is your name?_

Harry remembered some of the other times weird things happened around him: he had turned his teacher's hair blue when he was angry at his math teacher, and he had ended up on the school roof when he was running away from Dudley and his friends. Both times, Uncle Vernon had been furious with him, and those was among the few times when he had hit Harry. Harry had no explanation for how those weird things happened, and he tried to consider if it was possible that magic could exist. However, he realized that he had no way of understanding any of it on his own. He figured it could not hurt to continue talking to the snake – whether he stopped now or continued, the whole conversation would have to be kept secret from his relatives. He slowly said, _"My name in school is Harry Potter, but my relatives always call me 'Freak' or 'Boy.' "_

" _Great Salazar_!" exclaimed the snake. " _There is clearly something wrong with those relatives of yours. I will explain what I can about the wizarding world, but you cannot let people without magic, muggles, in on the secret. Before I begin, I need to ask you a question that may be difficult for you, but is very important. What do you remember about the night your parents died, the night you began living with your relatives?_ "

" _I remember a man standing over my crib pointing a stick at me, and then a flash of green light. I don't remember anything after that. I don't think I remember anything before that either. But that doesn't make any sense because my parents were drunks who died in a car crash."_

" _What?! Who told you your parents died in a car crash? Was is these relatives you told me about?"_ Harry nodded, and the snake continued _, "That is just one more thing they lied to you about. The truth is that there was an evil wizard, Lord Voldemort, and he was trying to take over the wizarding world. Your parents had fought him a few times, but each time they were outmatched and ended up fleeing. When you were born, they went into hiding. Their house was put under a charm so that only the person who cast the charm could tell anyone where they were._

 _"But that wizard betrayed them, and Lord Voldemort found them and attacked their home on Halloween, 1981. He killed both your parents, but then when he tried to kill you, the killing curse deflected off of you and hit him. I don't think it killed him. He was also a Parselmouth, and I think I recall other snakes talking about him fleeing as a spirit or something_ _. No one knows how you survived, but you did. After that happened, you became famous in the wizarding world, known as the Boy-Who-Lived, for being the only person to survive the killing curse._

 _"Albus Dumbledore, the most famous and influential wizard alive in Britain, felt it would not be safe for you to be raised with wizards in case some of Voldemort's followers came after you, so he hid you away, apparently with these relatives of yours. He seems to have kept the wizarding world hidden from you for seven years. I don't know if he would have waited until you were 11 and would go to Hogwarts before revealing that you are a wizard, but that would have been a terrible idea because you would not have had enough time to learn about a world you would be expected to completely understand."_

Harry stood there, eagerly listening to the snake's tale. He supposed it was possible, as it would explain the green light he sometimes remembered seeing, as well as the contradiction between the little he remembered and the tale his relative told him. But the whole tale sounded completely unrealistic, like the kind of thing one would might expect to happen in a fantasy novel. Or at least he thought so; there were only so many fantasy books he had actually read because he knew his aunt and uncle would not have approved of it if they found out. He cautiously asked the snake, " _What happened to the wizards after the bad wizard was defeated?"_

" _You think I know everything that happened? I am just a snake. The violence definitely stopped shortly after that, but many of Voldemort's followers avoided being punished by claiming that they were under the imperious curse, a curse that forces the target to do whatever the caster wants them to do. It was likely a complete lie, but they bribed or possibly blackmailed enough people into voting for their innocence."_

Harry thought for a moment. " _This just seems so hard to believe. Is there any way you can verify what you are saying? For all I know, this could be a set-up to make me look like a fool._ "

" _Actually there is,"_ noted the snake. " _There is a place in London where there is a major wizarding town hidden from muggles. You can go there and meet with the goblins who run the wizard bank Gringotts. They might be able to explain more about your family. In fact, your family may even have properties you could live at instead of Privet Drive. But if you go into the wizarding world, you will need to be disguised, and you definitely will need to hide that scar of yours."_

 _"Thank you, uh, snake. And what is your name; I don't think it would be polite for me to call you 'snake.' That sounds like a great idea, though, but I don't have any money, and it is not like I can ask the Dursleys for any. I don't want to steal any either."_

 _"You can call me Sal, short for Salazar, the name of a great wizard who could also talk to snakes. And to get money, why don't you ask your relatives if you can do some chores? And if you already do chores or other work for them, and are not paid for it, why do you feel you should not take from them? And you do not even need to get too much; a train ticket from Surrey to London costs under 10 pounds, and you shouldn't need more than_ £ _20-30_ _to get everything you need to disguise yourself."_

 _"You're right, Sal. I suppose I can take a little bit of money from the Dursleys. But I don't want them to know if I take any. I guess I can look through the attic for old toys Dudley never even opened and see if I can return them to the stores; I doubt they would even notice the toys missing. I should be able to get enough money from that."_

Harry and Sal continued talking, and they planned out when and how they would leave. They wanted to make sure that they left at a time when the Dursleys would not immediately be aware of it, but they also wanted to be careful about travelling during school hours to avoid being found breaking truancy laws. They discussed how Sal would hide when they were travelling, as people would likely be scared if they saw a snake slithering around; they decided that the snake could hide under Harry's shirt, as his hand-me-downs were baggy enough that the snake would not be noticed. They realized that they needed to wait until they had a better idea of what kind of schedule he would be expected to follow once school began, so they returned to Privet Drive, and the snake hid in the backyard.

Harry cooked dinner that night, and then Petunia instructed Harry about what would be expected of him once the school year began. He would be required to complete his chores – weeding the garden, cleaning the house, and cooking dinner for everyone – before Uncle Vernon returns home from work around 6PM, three hours after the school day ends. Harry nodded in agreement to those rules, not that he had much of a choice or any intention of obeying. It was clear, however, that if he were to leave after school one day, his aunt and uncle would not know until that evening. He told Sal to meet him at the Surrey train station at 3:20 the next day. Before he went to sleep, he climbed the stairs to the attic and looked around for unopened games: he found boxes of Scrabble, Mastermind, and Stratego that he could sell. All of those games were unopened because they involved too much thinking for Dudley to even try to play, and Harry placed them into his backpack.

The next morning Harry snuck out and left for school 30 minutes early, stopping at a toy store along the way to return the three unopened boxes. There was a very short line at the check-out aisle, and a few minutes later, he exchanged the games for £35. Pocketing his cash, he continued on toward his school. He got to class a few minutes before the teacher began taking attendance. When the teacher got to Harry's name, he warned Harry that if his behavior did not improve, then he would be spending a lot of time in detentions. Apparently the previous year's teacher had mentioned that Harry was a trouble maker. Dudley snickered, and Harry was about to retort that he does behave and that anyone who actually believed he was responsible for all of Dudley's wrongdoings is an idiot. However, before he could say something that would get him in trouble, he realized that it does not matter because he would be leaving later that day.

The rest of the day went better than Harry expected because he did not need to worry about paying attention to all of the rules and expectations for the class; learning multiplication and reading whatever literature they were supposed to could wait until he was safely away from the Dursleys. Instead, he could listen in on the bullies plotting against him, and he heard that they planned on confronting him outside the entrance to the school at the end of the day. During the day, Harry wondered how he could avoid them, and he decided that he could sneak out from one of the side exits that the students are not supposed to use.

At the end of the day, Dudley and Gordon waited outside of the school to catch Harry as he came outside. When 20 minutes had past, and they still did not see him, they assumed Harry must still be inside the school. They walked back into the school to look for him, and they got caught by one of the teachers. They said that they were waiting for Harry outside but that he did not leave and therefore must still be inside, and that they were only in the building because they were looking for him. The teacher thanked them for alerting him and told them to leave (and that Harry would be in trouble either when he gets found, or when he returns to school). They left and looked for other students to bully.

Meanwhile, Harry made sure to take a little bit of time packing his backpack so he would be behind the rest of the students as he left. He followed the mass of students exiting the school, and when no one was looking, he turned down a corridor, towards a different exit that he would be able to use. He did not realize that the door he used was alarmed, and a piercing sound could be heard as soon as he opened the door. Harry could feel his heart thumping rapidly and almost panicked, but he immediately began considering his options: flee, hide back inside the school, or hide just outside the school. Not being able to change his plans because his snake was already supposed to be at the train station, Harry decided that fleeing would be the best option. He sped up and began walking very quickly to the train station. Moments later, he heard someone yell out to him to stop, but he just began running. Before he turned onto a larger road close to the train station, he glanced back and saw that he was not being followed.

He slowed down to a walk so that he would not appear suspicious if someone saw him. A few minutes later, he met up with Sal, bought a train ticket to London, and waited for the train taking him away from his aunt and uncle. As the train approached, Harry thought about all of the reasons he had for leaving and how he finally had a chance of starting over a new life somewhere away from the Dursleys. He boarded the train, saying goodbye to Surrey and wondering if he would ever return to the town that treated him terribly.

* * *

When Harry began his plan to leave Privet Drive, the wards around the house began weakening. These were meant to prevent any witch or wizard from harming Harry while he was within the vicinity of the wards, and they had been effective for this purpose. But Dumbledore did not consider the possibility of the muggles being the problem. The wards slowly deteriorated as Harry's plans had come along, but they did not collapse entirely until the train doors closed with Harry on board. Magic apparently thought that up until that point, Harry could still change his mind about leaving and go back to the Dursleys, but boarding the train was the Rubicon that committed Harry to his escape plan.

The wards crashing down did not go unnoticed by a bunch of magical devices in a castle approximately 500 miles away in Scotland. Those were supposed to alert Dumbledore if Harry had left Surrey without his relatives or was in life-threatening danger, but while the devices noticed that Harry had left, Dumbledore did not. They had not done anything in the seven years Harry was with the Dursleys because even though he was not treated well, he was never in any sort of grave danger, and Dumbledore had stopped paying attention to them. They just became part of the background in his office, hidden in plain sight among other magical apparatuses with functions long forgotten. Fawkes, Dumbledore's phoenix, would have alerted Dumbledore, but he had just had a burning day and thus was in no condition to do so.


	2. The Runaway

Parseltongue will be placed in italics

Chapter 2 – The Runaway

Harry and his snake arrived at London Victoria train station around 4:15 and began walking towards Charing Cross Road. He considered wandering around London, as he had never been there before. However, he realized that he had a very limited amount of money and would need to make it to Diagon Alley that day, so he could not make too many stops along the way.

When he was about a mile from the Leaky Cauldron, he passed by a small playground. He saw three kids bullying a young girl who was reading. As he approached, he heard them calling her a "Buck-toothed loser" and a "Know-it-all." Harry decided it was worth the time to try to stop the bullies. He asked Sal to scare them away, and the snake nodded. Sal slithered up to the closest bully, wrapped himself around the bully's legs, and hissed. While grass snakes are not poisonous or aggressive, a bunch of nine-year-old bullies would not know that. The lead bully shrieked, tried to run, and promptly fell flat on her face. The other two, screaming and fleeing, forgot all about the girl they were tormenting, while the first bully got up and limped after them.

The girl who was being bullied looked at the snake that scared the bullies away. She recognized it as being a relatively-harmless grass snake and began to laugh at the bullies' irrational reaction. She did not understand, however, why it did that; she had never read about a snake behaving this was. She decided that she needed to read more books about grass snakes to figure out its unusual behavior.

Harry approached his snake. " _Great job Sal. The look on those bullies' faces was priceless_."

The girl tried to make sense of what she saw: Harry walking up to the snake and … whispering something to it? But that wouldn't make any sense. Humans can't talk to snakes. Maybe he just tamed the snake?

"Is that your snake that scared the bullies away?" asked the girl. Harry nodded, and she continued. "Thank you. My name's Hermione Granger. What's your name? Why were you here? Where is your family?..." She was clearly very excited about meeting someone who did not seem mean to her, but when Harry froze up at the last two questions, she stopped, unsure of what she said wrong.

Harry did not know how to respond to those two questions. What could he say about why he was there and where his family was? He did not want to lie, but he also could not exactly tell the truth; how could he explain that he ran away from his aunt and uncle because of the way they had treated him? Also, he was trying to remain anonymous in the wizarding world, but as far as Harry was aware, there were no witches or wizards around. He considered what would be safe to say. "I'm Harry…. My family, the Dursleys, lives in Surrey, a train ride away…. My snake wanted to visit certain areas of London, but my relatives were too busy to come, so I came alone."

"It's cool that you can understand your snake. How do you do that? And it's really nice of your relatives to allow you to come here even though they couldn't make it."

"I don't know how I can talk with my snake. I just can." Harry also wondered if he should correct Hermione's misconception about his relatives, but he decided against it because he did not want to risk Hermione realizing that he ran away.

Harry went to leave shortly after that because he did not know what time Gringotts closes. Before he left, though, Hermione asked how they could stay in touch. Harry was unsure how to respond because there were a bunch of questions that he could not answer until after he visited Gringotts: Will he be living in London? If not, how long will it take for him to travel to London from his future home? Harry and Sal discussed what would make sense, and they decided that they could return to the park the following day – if they are going to travel a non-magical way after leaving Gringotts, they could return to the park before they leave, and if they will take a magical means of transportation, it would be easy for them to return. Hermione only heard Harry and the snake hissing to each other, but then Harry told Hermione that he could be at the park the following afternoon and would have a better idea of how they would be able to communicate then. Harry left and continued on toward Diagon Alley.

When Harry was a few blocks from the Leaky Cauldron, he found a few stores where he could buy everything he needed to disguise himself before going back to the wizarding world. He bought brown hair dye to disguise himself and tan paint to hide his scar, and he reached the Leaky Cauldron around 5:30. Sal did not know how to get into Diagon Alley from the pub and Harry was too scared to ask the bartender, so Harry decided to wait for someone else to open whatever passage leads between the pub and the alley. The snake also reminded Harry that immediately after passing into Diagon Alley, he would need to head to Gringotts and talk to the goblins. He also briefly described how to interact with the goblins: be polite, but do not show weakness. In particular, Harry should not mention anything the Dursleys did to him unless the goblins specifically ask about it.

After Harry walked into the Leaky Cauldron, he stopped hiding Sal because snakes are not too uncommon as pets for wizards, so there would be nothing unusual about having the snake travel alongside him. He had been waiting just inside the building for what seemed like an eternity, but was really only about 5 minutes, when he saw an elderly wizard tap a few bricks of the back wall with his wand. Instantly, a few of the bricks moved apart from each other and created a small opening. The wizard stepped through, and Harry darted toward the opening to make it through before it sealed up again. Harry barely made it through, and by the time he had turned around on the other side, he saw that the wall had already resealed itself. He found himself looking at the wizarding world for the first time in seven years. He stood there, staring at all of the buildings – many of them had unusual shapes because magic allows witches and wizards to create buildings with designs that would be inherently unstable without magic, so the design of the buildings was limited only by the creativity of the builders – and he tried to imagine what kind of fascinating products could be found within them. He saw shops selling potion ingredients, broomsticks, wizarding candies, and more. However, Harry did not stop and stare for too long because he needed to get to Gringotts before anyone could realize that _the_ Harry Potter was alone in Diagon Alley.

Harry and Sal went into Gringotts, and they looked around. The bank was far emptier than Harry expected it to be: more than half of the teller-windows were closed, there were only a handful of wizards in the bank, and there was no queue waiting for an open window. Sal mentioned that since the wizard school Hogwarts begins September 1, and most wizards who have school-age children go to the bank at the end of the summer, the beginning of September is the quietest time of the year for the bank. Harry walked up to one of the tellers and read the name plate in front of the goblin. "Good evening, Griphook. I'm Harry Potter and I would like to see what gold and property I have."

Griphook hid his surprise at the appearance of the young wizard in muggle clothing with a large snake. As far as he could remember, the Potter family did not tend to have snakes as pets. The wizard also did not look anything like either James or Lily. While he had his doubts about the identity of the wizard claiming to be Harry, Gringotts has methods of confirming the identity of wizards. "Do you have your key with you?" When Harry shook his head, Griphook continued, "In that case, a blood test will need to be done to confirm your identity." Griphook pulled out a special goblin knife, made a small cut into Harry's finger, and watched as a drop of blood fell onto a piece of parchment. After a short moment, the blood began to move and form writing:

Harry James Potter

Son of James Potter and Lilly Potter nee Evans

Heir to the Most Ancient House of Potter

Godson of Sirius Black

Legal Guardian - Sirius Black

Notable Ancestors: Ignotus Peverell, Linfred of Stinchcombe

Wealth - 745,360G, 10S, 4K

Properties - Potter Manor (Wales), Potter Cottage (Norwich), Potter Hollow (Godric's Hollow) (destroyed)

House elves - 1

Wealth in trust vault - 45,000G

Access to 1 property prior to 17th birthday

Note: Potter Manor cannot be accessed without an adult Head-of-House

Harry stared blankly at the parchment. "Thank you, sir, but can you explain a few things to me because I was raised with muggles and a lot of this is unfamiliar? What do the 'G,' 'S,' and 'K' listed next to 'wealth' mean – is that a lot of money I have? Why does it list famous people I am related to? And if I have a few homes, why was I living with my aunt and uncle in Surrey?"

Griphook sighed, knowing that it would take a while to answer all of Harry's questions. He did not particularly want to be the one to explain everything to an eight-year-old child who knew next-to-nothing about magic, but he figured that he could use a break from the mundane job he was only using as a stepping stone to a more-senior position at the bank, and that helping a wealthy client could prove beneficial. "It would be best to discuss this in private away from the prying ears of other wizards. Follow me." Griphook disappeared from behind the window and reappeared through a door just to Harry's left a moment later. Then Griphook led Harry down the hall and into the first available room and continued, "The 'G' stands for Galleons, which are worth 17 Sickles, and a Sickle is worth 29 Knuts. In –"

"How were those numbers picked?" Harry interrupted. "Wouldn't using multiples of 5 or 10 be easier to remember?"

"How should I know how currency values originated? Wizards are weird. Although part of the reason could have been that many prime numbers have great significance in wizarding society and in magic in general. And please don't interrupt. I'll never finish answering your questions if you do."

"Sorry."

"Back to your questions, the Galleon is worth about 6.5 muggle pounds. The main expense your trust vault is for would be your schooling; it costs approximately 30,000 Galleons to attend Hogwarts for 7 years." And your family would definitely be considered upper-class, but is by no means among the wealthiest families in Britain. The designation of 'Most Ancient House' simply means that your family has had magic for over 491 year; it does not matter in any way, except that many witches and wizards from the older families consider the 'Most Ancient Houses' and the 'Ancient Houses,' families that have had magic for 7 generations, to be better than those from younger families. The identification parchment lists famous ancestors primarily because it has a legal role regarding ownership of artifacts owned by those wizards. As to why you were living in Surrey, I do not know; your parents' will was sealed by Albus Dumbledore before it could be read."

"Why did he do that?" Harry asked before he could stop himself. "Sorry for the interruption, but I found out only yesterday that Dumbledore was the reason I ended up living with those bloody muggles. He's the reason I – "

" _Calm down_ ," Sal hissed before Harry could say or do something he would later regret.

Harry took a deep breath and whispered an apology to the snake. Griphook did not know exactly why the snake stopped Harry from continuing, but it had sounded like there were problems with Harry's guardians that needed to be addressed. He continued with what he was previously saying, but kept it mind what Harry implied, so he could address it afterwards.

"I do not know why Dumbledore did that; you would need to ask him if you want to find out. Back to what I was saying, no one knew what their will had said, and we do not have a copy for you to look at now. It must have said you have access to one property before you become an adult at age 17 – the will itself would automatically take effect even though no one read it – but it seems Dumbledore violated the will and had you raised by muggles. Also, it is interesting that the parchment recognizes Sirius Black as your legal guardian. He is currently in Azkaban, the wizard prison, for supposedly telling Voldemort where your parents were hiding and then murdering Peter Pettigrew and 12 muggles."

Harry gasped. His legal guardian is a mass murderer? Surely living with the Dursleys would be safer than that. He even seriously considered running back to them, fully aware that he would be punished severely upon his return.

He was more than a bit relieved when the goblin continued. "Magic would prevent a convicted felon from being a magical guardian, but since Black is listed as your guardian, he must have been sent to Azkaban without a trial. It is possible that he is not guilty of the crimes he was accused of. Now, Potter Cottage is the only property in livable condition that you have access to. I can make a reusable portkey for 12 Galleons to take you between there and Gringotts."

"Yeah, I want the portkey. Also, is there a way I would be able to make large purchases without carrying around huge bags of Galleons? It seems like that would get very heavy."

Griphook gave Harry a small card and told him that it was similar to a muggle credit card. "And just so you are aware, Gringotts takes a 1.5% transaction fee whenever it is used, and it is tied to your magic, so no one else can use it."

Throughout this conversation, Griphook searched for signs of Harry's problems with his current guardians. He noticed a few bruises on Harry's arms and duly noted that Harry looked rather short for his age. He asked Harry if he would like a magical doctor to tend to his bruises – for 20 galleons of course.

"Yes, I would like that. Thank you."

Griphook called for another goblin who came and examined Harry. He saw a few scars and asked Harry how he got them; Harry mentioned that he was hit by his cousin and his cousin's friends when he was not fast enough to get away from them. The goblin healer also noticed that Harry had improperly-healed bones and concluded that Harry likely had never been to a doctor before. When he got to Harry's scar, he realized there was dark magic there, but he did not know exactly what it was. He healed many of Harry's wounds and scars and gave Harry a growth potion to take for a few months. He also told Harry about the dark magic in the scar, but since he could not identify or remove it, he put a small magic shield around it to hopefully prevent it from causing any problems.

Harry then asked when would be a good time to come back if he had further questions, and if he should make an appointment or just show up.

"If you come in before the end of the week, you will not need to make an appointment because as you probably noticed when you walked into the bank, we are not particularly crowded right now. If you are coming after that, however, you will need to make an appointment at the teller-window on the far-right when entering the bank; the list of times I would be available will be given then. If you wish to remain anonymous, then as long as have your snake with you, you can register for the appointment under the snake's name. And just so you are aware, Gringotts charges 5 Galleons per hour for private meetings."

Harry and his snake were ready to leave, but before they portkeyed to Potter Cottage, Harry remembered something he forgot to ask Griphook about. "What is a house-elf? Are they like maids?"

"I do not know exactly how maids are treated in the muggle world, so I cannot comment on the comparison. A house-elf is a magical servant that needs to bond to a wizard or to a family because they use that magic to survive. They like doing work, and as long as they are treated fairly, they will help the wizard they bond to. Their magic is quite unique, and they are capable of many feats of magic that humans, and even goblins, cannot accomplish. And lastly, while house elves cannot directly disobey any orders or lie to their masters, if they are mistreated and don't like their family, they can intentionally misinterpret orders or give truthful-but-misleading answers to act against their master's wishes."

* * *

That night, Hermione's parents asked her about what happened in the park, as they had received a call from her classmates' parents. They had heard that Hermione and three other girls were playing around until Hermione beat up one of the girls and threatened the other two.

"But that's not true," said Hermione. "The three girls were bullying me and calling me names when a harmless grass snake slithered up to them. It tripped one bully and scared all of them away. It turns out that the snake had been tamed by a young boy who was walking by the park."

Even though that story sounded a little unrealistic, since Hermione had not lied to them before (and she certainly wasn't big enough to scare anyone away), they believed her. However, they were suspicious about this kid who was walking around alone. "Hermione, dear," began her mother, Emma. "I have a few questions about this boy with the snake. Do you know how old he is or why he was alone? Was there anything unusual you noticed about him?"

Hermione thought back to the conversation she had with Harry. "I don't know how old he is. He looked like he was 6 or 7, but he acted much more mature than a 6 or 7 year old would act. He was alone because he was visiting someplace in London with his snake and because his relatives were too busy to come with him. When I asked him about his family and why he was there, he froze for a second, and then began speaking very carefully after that. And he said his name is Harry, and mentioned that he lives with his family, the Dursleys, in Surrey." Both of Hermione's parents suspected that there was something wrong, but that discussion could wait until after Hermione left.

After dinner, Daniel and Emma Granger discussed this mysterious boy who helped Hermione. They reviewed what they knew about him and what they suspected. Emma began, "He acts older than he looks, which could simply mean he is mature for his age, or it could mean that he is being underfed and is not growing properly. He also said that his family is the Dursleys, but he did not introduce himself as one. Could that mean that he doesn't like the Dursleys? And he said his family was too busy to come with him to London."

"That is very strange," Daniel continued. "No normal family would allow a child that small, even if he is mature, to take the train alone to a large city. Do you think his family really let him go, or do you think he ran away from them?"

"I wouldn't be too surprised if he ran away. We should definitely call the police. They'll know how to fix this."

* * *

Vernon Dursley returned home at 6:00 sharp, expecting to find a pristine home and dinner cooked and waiting for him because he knew that Harry would be too scared of punishment to have not completed his chores. However, to his surprise, none of the chores were done; Dudley's toys littered the floor, dirty dishes filled the sink, and the kitchen table was barren. "Freak!" he yelled. "Why haven't you done your chores yet? Get in the kitchen right now before I … !" he rambled on as he thought about what he would do after Harry comes down. But he heard nothing besides his own echo. He figured that Harry was just being rebellious and had decided to come home late, so he ordered dinner and continued to think about what kind of punishment would teach Harry to obey orders and complete his chores, but would not be noticed by anyone outside the family.

He was still trying to think of the perfect punishment later that night. Harry had not come home yet, and Dudley mentioned that he and his friends did not see Harry leave the school. After Dudley went to sleep, Vernon and Petunia discussed what could have happened to Harry. "Do you think the good-for-nothing freak finally left us?" began Vernon.

"Maybe. If he did, it's about time. But what should we say to the school when he is not there tomorrow, and what do we say if Dumbledore comes looking for him?"

"We tell the school that he is being transferred to St. Brutus's Secure Centre for Incurably Criminal Boys because his behavior has not improved at all and it would be a mistake to leave him in a public school. If Dumbledore asks, we just say that the ungrateful whelp ran away and there was nothing we could do about it." With their excuses set, the Dursleys felt that could stop worrying about their unwanted nephew, and they were hopeful that they would not need to deal with magic ever again.

What the Dursleys did not consider, however, was the possibility that someone would know where Harry went and could disprove their lies about sending Harry to St. Brutus's. Emma called the police and mentioned that they suspect a child ran away from his home in Surrey, and they explained what Hermione told them about Harry. The police let the Grangers know that they would investigate. This case was not one of their top priories, but the following afternoon, they made a few phone calls and learned that there was a family of Dursleys living at 4 Privet Drive, and that their nephew Harry was not at school that day. They found out from the school that Harry was being disciplined at home and that his family was in the process of transferring him to St. Brutus's Secure Centre for Incurably Criminal Boys.

Hearing the two contradicting stories, the police decided to come to Privet Drive and ask the Dursleys about Harry. Vernon and Petunia had not gotten home yet, so Dudley answered the door. One police officer took out a pen and notepad and then began speaking. "Are your parents around?"

"No. They are both not home yet."

"When did you last see your cousin?"

"I saw the freak in school yesterday. I did not see him leave, and I have not seen him after that."

The police office scribbled down what Dudley had said. Calling his cousin a freak seemed to be important. "Why do you call him a freak?"

"My parents call him a freak. I do not know why they do, but if they call him a freak, than he must be a freak."

This was a clear indication that something was wrong, and Dudley's statement had already contradicted the report they heard from the school. "Do you know why your parents told the school Harry was at home?" the police officer asked.

Dudley had a blank look in his face as he tried to think of why his parents would have done that. "Uh, I do not know. They must've had good reasons for it."

They continued speaking, and Dudley eventually disclosed that Harry does all of the work around that house, but is not given enough food to eat. He also mentioned that his parents encouraged him to hit Harry, and that they even hit him a couple of times after Harry got in trouble at school. This, along with the evidence that Harry ran away and the Dursleys tried to hide it, was more than enough to have Vernon and Petunia arrested and to have Dudley sent to his Aunt Marge.


	3. Potter Cottage

Parseltongue will be placed in italics

Also, I made some minor changes to the previous chapter in response to one of the anonymous comments I got. Harry did not get contact lenses as part of his disguise. I still had him get hair dye because it is stated in the books that he looked a lot like James, so he probably would be recognized if he went to Diagon Alley without any disguise.

Chapter 3 – Potter Cottage

Harry and Sal appeared inside Potter Cottage. Harry felt queasy and doubled over. As he was regaining his bearings, the house-elf Dinky popped to their location and asked, "Who are you and how did you get into Potter Cottage?" Unsure of who would else would have a portkey to the Potter residence, he asked, "Is it Master Potter?"

"Yes, I'm Harry Potter."

Sal popped his head to see what was going on. Dinky's eyes widened and he snapped his fingers, flinging Sal across the room.

"Stop!" Harry yelled. "That is my friend. Don't hurt him." Harry watched as Dinky rushed over to the nearest wall and began banging his head against it. "What are you doing?" Harry bounded toward the elf. "Stop that!"

"Dinky hurt Master Potter's friend and must be punished for it." The house elf began hitting himself again.

"No, don't punish yourself. You had no way of knowing Sal is my friend. And whenever you think you should punish yourself, ask me first and I will let you know if you should be punished."

"Thank you, Master."

The house-elf then showed them around the house. "Downstairs in the basement is a potions lab. We are not going to go down there because it is not safe for Master Potter. There are many dangerous potion ingredients there. Here on the first floor, there is a dueling room in the back."

"Cool, can I see it?" Harry asked.

Moments later, Dinky led Harry and Sal into a large room. "I thought we were going to the dueling room," Harry said sullenly. "There is nothing here." What Harry had thought would be a room with two elevated platforms, separated by a fair distance, where two duelists could stand and fire spells at each other, was only an empty room.

"That's what a dueling room is. It has an open space for the duelists and reinforced walls to prevent stray spells from damaging the house. What did Master expect? A room with elevated platforms, where two duelists could stand and fire spells at each other?"

Harry's cheeks turned red and he looked down.

"Bad house-elf made Master embarrassed. Should Dinky punish himself?

"No, it's okay. I was just a little surprised by the dueling room. I'm still getting used to all of this magic stuff. Can we continue the tour?"

"The next place that you should see is the library, on the second floor," continued Dinky. "There is a small collection of books on magic in the back, and toward the front there are many muggle books. You might find some books you like there."

When they reached the hall with the staircase, a voice called out, "Harry, is that you?"

Harry looked up to the staircase, where the noise came from. There was nobody there. He shot over to Dinky, almost bowling him over, and cowered behind him. "Who are you? Are you upstairs?"

"That was your mother speaking, in the portrait next to the staircase," Dinky answered. Realizing that Harry would not know anything about magical portraits, he added. "Magical portraits are somewhat sentient and contain the memories that the witches and wizards in the portrait had before it was made, as well as anything the portrait observed after that."

Harry looked up and saw the portrait of a witch and wizard. He darted toward it and tried to give it a hug, but it was too high up on the wall. "Mom? Dad?"

Lily spoke again, "Yes, I'm Lily and this here is James. It's good to see you again. How long has it been since we saw you, and where have you been these past years?"

"It has been nearly seven years since I began living with the Dursleys."

James began shouting. "What the bloody hell were you doing with those … with them?" He censored himself when Lily nudged him. "The will said you were supposed to go to Sirius Black or Remus Lupin, and it specifically said you were _not_ to go to the Dursleys. Was the will sealed?" He briefly paused to wait for Harry to give confirmation. Once Harry nodded, James continued, "Do the goblins know who sealed the will? The only wizard I can think of who could have done that is Dumbledore. And how and why did you run away?"

"Yes, the goblins said that it was Dumbledore. And I ran away because the Dursleys were mean to me," Harry said, downplaying his treatment at the hands of his relatives. "I got away when I learned that I am a Parselmouth, and this snake, Sal, told me about the wizarding world. I bought a train ticket to London and went to Gringotts, and the goblins gave me something that brought me here. And I don't know anything about Remus, but Sirius was thrown into Azkaban for _supposedly_ telling Voldemort where you were hiding and then killing Peter. I know he was not given a trial, however, because some blood test that the goblins performed showed that Sirius is my guardian, which they said would not be the case if he was found guilty in a trial."

Lily replied before James could go off on a tirade about how Sirius would never do such a thing. "First, you should know that many people don't trust Parselmouths because a few Parselmouths were evil. It's stupid, but you will find, if you haven't already, that many witches and wizards lack common sense and believe that being able to talk to snakes makes somebody bad. You should hide the ability from those who you don't fully trust. Also, Sirius did not tell Voldemort where we were. We were hidden under the Fidelius charm, which allows only one person, who is designated as the secret keeper, to tell anyone where we were hiding. Peter Pettigrew was the secret keeper, so he is the only one who could have betrayed us to Voldemort, unless we changed secret keepers after this portrait was made (which is possible but unlikely). You will need to find out more about what happened to all of them; the goblins may be able to help."

"For a hefty price," interjected James. "Just make sure they don't try to swindle you."

"Ignore James. The goblins are not as bad as their reputation would make them seem, and they are too savvy to risk losing your business in the future by overcharging you a few Galleons now. Anyways, it seems likely that Dumbledore is interfering in things he has no business in. That could become an issue because he is very influential in the wizarding world – among other roles, he is the headmaster of Hogwarts, the school that most witches and wizards in Britain go to. Once Dumbledore realizes you are no longer with the Dursleys, he will probably do everything he can to get you back under his control, so you will need to remain hidden as long as you can. You _must_ learn how to defend yourself against legilimency, which is basically mind-reading, before you encounter Dumbledore."

"Mind reading?" asked Harry. "Is there anything magic can't do?"

James responded "It's not exactly mind-reading, and those who know Legilimency would be insulted if you make that comparison. A more-precise analogy would be that it is like watching a movie of one's memories. And there are a few things that magic cannot do, such as bringing the dead back to life – although many necromancers have tried – and conjuring food or gold."

"I think that was a rhetorical question, James. But back to what I was saying, Dumbledore knows Legilimency, so you will need to be able to defend yourself against it. You will also need to learn about wizarding customs and laws because you cannot be ignorant of them when you reenter wizarding society, and you should learn some wandless magic, which is easier to learn if you begin before you first use a wand."

Harry listened to what his parents' portrait told him, and he realized that he had a lot of work he needed to do before he could let any witches or wizards know where he is. But first, he asked if Potter Cottage had a phone number, so that he could keep in touch with Hermione.

Lily answered, "Before we went into hiding, we disconnected the phone lines here and we set up wards blocking incoming mail. Those wards should have faded by now, so you will have no problem sending and receiving letters."

After Harry finished talking with the portrait of his parents, he bounded up the stairs to the library and ran to the back of the room, where the books involving magic were kept. He gazed upon the shelf of books of all different sizes and colors, and was drawn to a book with a shiny gold cover and a worn-down leather binding.

He picked up the book and read the title: "The Potter Family." He began skimming through the book, and not too far in, his eyes fell upon a legend of one of his ancestors, Ignotus Peverell. Not bothering to look around for a table or chair, Harry sat down on the floor in front of the bookshelf and read the story of how Ignotus and his two brothers Cadmus and Antioch created the Deathly Hallows – the Elder Wand, the Resurrection Stone, and the Cloak of Invisibility – and convinced everyone that they received the items from Death.

The following morning, Harry returned to Gringotts to try to contact Remus and to solicit the goblin's help in getting a trial for Sirius. He met with Griphook again.

"Good morning," began Harry. "I encountered a portrait of my parents in Potter Cottage, and there were a few important things that I found out that I will need your help with. First, Sirius Black was indeed innocent of at least some of the crimes he was accused of. My parents' secret keeper was Peter Pettigrew, not Sirius Black, so he could not have betrayed them. How would I be able to get him a trial? Also, my parents told me that their will listed Remus Lupin as the second choice for my guardian after Sirius. Do you know what happened to him, and could you contact him?"

Griphook pounced on the opportunity to embarrass the Ministry. "I will definitely help you get a trial for Sirius, but we are going to need to be careful how we go about this. Finding that they sent an innocent man to Azkaban would severely damage the Ministry of Magic's credibility. Unfortunately, many of the Ministry employees would be more concerned with making sure they are not brought down with the scandal than with ensuring justice is achieved. If the individuals responsible for Sirius' imprisonment find out too quickly that we are trying to get a trial for him, I would not put it past them to have Sirius killed before he could prove his innocence. After all, dead men tell no tales, and the word of a portrait would not be accepted in any court of law." He gave a small chuckle before he continued. "One of the few people who might push for a trial, and is high enough in the government to have a chance at succeeding, is Amelia Bones, the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. I will send her a note saying that Sirius did not receive a trial. I will not, at least for now, mention that Pettigrew was the secret keeper because that information would likely make it obvious that you were here."

Harry found that assessment reasonable, and while he did not know who Amelia was, Griphook seemed knowledgeable enough about the ministry, so he just nodded and let the goblin continue.

"Regarding your second inquiry, I do not know where Mr. Lupin is. The best way to contact him would be to send a postal owl to him. Owls have magic that can allow them to locate individuals who are receiving a letter or package. He is a werewolf, but that would not cause any difficulties in sending an owl because the full moon was a little over a week ago, and werewolves are no different from any other witch or wizard when there is not a full moon. I can send the note for you if you would like."

* * *

That day, the three bullies spent much of their morning classes glaring at Hermione, angry that she had not been scared of the snake. When recess began, they approached her. "What did you do to that snake to get it to attack us?" "Why were you not afraid of it?"

"I did not have anything to do with the snake," Hermione answered honestly. "But why would you be afraid of it? The grass snake, or _Natrix natrix_ , is non-venomous and rarely bites. What are you, a chicken?"

"How dare you!" responded the bully who was tripped by the snake. She then tried to punch Hermione, who dodged and began running away. Hermione knew that the bullies were faster than her, so she just tried to get close enough to a teacher to be safe from them. She looked around for any adults, but saw that the nearest one was by the playground a few hundred meters away, and she realized that she would not be able to get there quickly enough.

She was concentrating on getting away, and moments before the bullies could catch her, she vanished. She appeared on the other side of the school, panting heavily and sweating profusely. Less than a minute later, while the bullies were arguing with each other about how Hermione could have slipped away from them, a group of obliviators from the Department of Magical Law Enforcement showed up. They used Legilimency to determine what magic the three bullies had observed, and they replaced the memory of Hermione disappearing with a memory of Sal attacking them again. Fearing another snake attack, the bullies decided to pick on someone else instead.

Later that afternoon, Harry met up with Hermione at the park in London. As soon as she saw Harry, Hermione said, "I have read a lot about grass snakes, but nothing seems explain the behavior of your snake yesterday? Why did it attack the bullies?"

"I asked him to. This is Sal." Harry pointed to the snake hanging on his shoulders. "He has been my pet for many years." He hoped that his lie would placate Hermione enough for her not to wonder why the snake understands him.

"Wow, it's amazing that he just knows what you want him to do. Anyways, you said yesterday that you were going to figure out a way for us to keep in touch?"

"Yes, I'm going to be living in a home in Norwich," Harry continued, giving Hermine his new address.

"Why are you moving to Norwich?"

"My parents owned a home there. It has plenty of paintings and there is a library upstairs."

"Ooh! Were there any good books there?"

"I was just reading a book about my family history, and there was a very interesting legend about the Peverell brothers."

"About William Peverell, the knight who fought with William the Conqueror in the Battle of Hastings?"

"Who? No, it was about Antioch, Cadmus, and Ignotus Peverell. In the legend, they – "

Sal hissed, " _I don't think you should be telling this story. It is about magic."_

 _"But muggles have stories about magic. And they believe that the legends aren't true," Harry hissed back._

Hermione leaned closer, trying to hear what Harry was saying, but he definitely wasn't speaking English – or any other language she recognized. It sounded like he was hissing words, as if Sal could actually understand him.

 _"But are there any muggle stories about the Peverell brothers? It would be too risky for you to tell the story."_

Hermione furrowed her brow; did the snake just respond to him? It almost seemed like they were having a real conversation. What if he actually could – no, that isn't possible.

Harry paused for a moment to think of an excuse, then turned back to Hermione. "Sal seems to think that I should not tell the story because it is too morbid; its main subject is Death."

* * *

Wednesday September 6

"Pay attention!" Hermione's teacher yelled at her.

Hermione looked up and muttered an apology. She saw the writing on the blackboard, but was not processing any of it. She was still thinking about her teleportation away from the bullies, which was not making any sense. This was not the first time something weird happened to her; she had previously summoned a book that was too high up for her to reach, and she had reappeared in a library after she had left it. Every other time, she had managed to come up with an explanation: maybe the book had fallen, and maybe she had wandered back into the library without realizing it.

But this time, nothing was making sense. There was no logical way she could have gotten away from the bullies and appeared on the far side of the school, and Harry definitely wasn't just hissing to his snake; he was speaking some other language, and it seemed to understand him back. The more she thought about it, the less sense it made. After a few hours of fruitlessly trying to explain it – and being yelled at a few more times to pay attention – she realized that she was not getting anywhere. There had to be a better way of going about this. Maybe there was a book... or maybe if Harry had figured out how to speak to his snake, he might have a better idea of why weird things kept happening to her.

She drafted a letter to Harry, which she sent as soon as she got home from school.

Dear Harry,

Hi. How's your new home? Is it better than the one in Surrey was? Oh yeah, your aunt and uncle were arrested for how they treated you before you left. Why didn't you tell anyone about them sooner?

There is something I wanted to ask you about. Were you actually having a conversation with your snake yesterday? How did you learn to do that? I've never heard of anyone who could do that.

Also, a few weird things have happened to me, and I was wondering if you could help me understand them. Yesterday, when the bullies were about to attack me again, I somehow teleported to the other side of the school. Other inexplicable things have happened to me as well – last year, I somehow made a book on the top shelf fly to me when I could not reach it. Do you have any idea how any of that happened?

I hope you're enjoying your new home. Please write back soon.

Hermione


End file.
